Nasometrıc evaluatıon of resonance dısorders: a norm study wıth 4-18 years old Turkısh speakıng ındıvıduals

Resonance disorders, depending on cleft palate, craniofacial syndrome, motor speech disorder and hearing impairment result in crucial speech intelligibility problems. One of the instruments used for the evaluation of resonance disorders is the nasometer. Nasometer is one of the objective evaluation instruments which enable efficacy comparisons of the pre-intervention and post-intervention periods. It also manifests objective data for the diagnosis and the intervention of the disorders.In this study; SNAP Test-R (Simplified Nasometric Assessment Procedures-Revised) developed by Ann Kummer, has been adopted for Turkish and norms has been developed. SNAP Test-R includes the following three subtests: (a) The Syllable Repetition/Prolonged Sounds Subtest (b) The Picture-Cued Subtest (c) The Reading Subtest.240 participants with no history of neurological, hearing and speech disorders took a part in this study. Data have been collected from the following three groups (each group consisting of 80 individuals): preschool (ages between4-7), school-age (ages between 8-12), and adolescent (ages between 13-18). Aim of this study was getting nasometric norm results for Turkish speaking individuals and to explore the effects of age, gender and speech stimuli on nasality scores.There were no significant differences due to gender. For age there was a significant difference between 4-7 age group and the other two groups. Presented data suggested that nasometer is a useful tool for confirming hypernasality with high specificity and sensitivityKeywords: nasometer, nasality, resonans disorders, hypernasality, cleft palate